Accounting Talent: In-house Vs. Outsourced Teams

November 19, 2018

It is no secret that finding quality accounting talent can be extraordinarily difficult in today’s hiring environment. In 2015, 90 percent of CFOs reported difficulty finding qualified talent for accounting positions. For all but the largest and most prestigious firms, this obstacle is the one most likely to shatter expectations of creating a best-in-class accounting team that will give your business an edge over the competition.

The Value of Top Talent

Achieving best-in-class accounting talent adds value to business processes in profound ways. A top accounting team can deliver higher-value services at about half the cost of their average peer by redeploying finance talent, transforming accounting delivery models and leveraging technology to optimize efficiencies.

With world-class accounting, customers appreciate better service stemming from faster, more accurate billing. At the same time, partners and vendors appreciate a more efficient collection of receivables and disbursement of payables, and the company becomes a trusted and valuable partner.

Why OutsourcE Accounting Talent?

The difficulty in finding top accounting talent makes outsourcing an attractive option. Instead of risking resources on talent in a field with a turnover rate of between 15 and 20 percent, organizations can outsource their accounting to established service providers – a manageable, scalable solution that takes much of the stress and uncertainty out of accounting.

Many organizations are hesitant to outsource finance and accounting talent because they believe their books are so complex and so unique that only the existing team can take care of them properly. Business owners also tend to react to accounting management changes with distrust – but adopting accounting changes in small, incremental steps makes improvement easy. This can be achieved by partnering with a service provider that is willing to move at your pace, perhaps starting with only the simplest of transactional processes until success is proven.

Outsourcing lets businesses leverage the expertise and resources of a dedicated finance and accounting service provider to achieve the same results large enterprises can. Instead of dedicating in-house resources to procuring and implementing new technology, organizations simply empower a third-party vendor for whom investing in efficiency-boosting technology is a top priority and constant need.

Combining Outsourcing & In-House Teams

The key to achieving best-in-class accounting for your organization is using outsourced labor to perform low-impact transactional processes and support your retained talent for business-critical, judgement-based process work. Outsourcing firms have better access to top-notch talent worldwide and are able to match qualified applicants to the specific needs of your business. Low-impact transactional processes such as AP/AR, taxation and so on, are a great place to start when outsourcing F&A. And this can be done all while keeping your in-house team busy with more important projects.